Brussels, 20/11/2001 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday, the European Commission and the Belgian Presidency of the EU refuted the statements made the day before by the French Foreign Minster, Hubert Védrine, against the background of the General Affairs Council (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.4), expressing doubt about the Commission's approach as outlined in its strategy document published last week concluding that it was reasonable and realistic to believe that up to 10 out of the 12 candidate countries (not including Bulgaria and Rumania, which do not themselves believe they could join before 2006) could end their negotiations by the end of 2002 in order to be able to join the EU in 2004. In its report, the Commission felt that at this stage, it was highly unlikely that Bulgaria and Romania would be able to meet all the accession criteria by the end of 2002.
At a press conference on Monday, Mr Védrine had implied that as far as he was concerned, the Commission's strategic decision to designate the ten countries which it felt were the most likely to finish negotiating in 2002 (and therefore join in 2004), thereby excluding Bulgaria and Romania, was not based on an entirely objective and neutral assessment of the countries' progress, but was also influenced by political and geo-strategic considerations. In his opinion, there were some countries among the ten for which a particular effort would have to be made in one form or another, adding that if enlargement were to become a political process based on political considerations, then account would also have to be taken of the political and geo-political importance of Bulgaria and Romania. In this context, Mr Védrine defended the latter two countries, saying that there was little difference between allowing ten new countries to join or allowing 12, but that leaving two countries on the wayside could have a "destabilising" impact in terms of internal political and economic reform and result in them giving up, rather than redoubling their efforts to meet the accession criteria.
On Tuesday, at the press conferences following the Association Councils between the EU and the Czech Republic, Poland and Bulgaria, the Belgian Presidency of the EU (in the person of the European Affairs Minister, Annemie Neyts) and the European Commission (represented by Eneko Landaburu, Director General for enlargement) both laid great emphasis on the fact that the accession negotiations were being and would always be carried out on the basis of objective and factual criteria and it was important to avoid mixing in political considerations. Mr Landaburu basically said that the European Commission had always ensured that the basic principles underlying the enlargement process were respected (and would continue to do so). The principles he mentioned were differentiation, individual judgement on an own merit basis and catching up for countries that began negotiating at a later date. He felt that Mr Védrine's remarks were more of a general reflection that an political statement from the French government. He added that it was only by ensuring full respect for the criteria that enlargement could be successful. The regular reports on each of the candidate countries were drawn up using real, objective data and the conclusions drawn in the Commission strategy document echoed this "objective analysis", explained Mr Landaburu: starting from the current level of preparation and taking account of the work that remained to be done, the Commission feels that 10 candidate countries are likely to end their negotiations at some point next year (and that the 10 countries in question had reached very similar high levels of preparation). Annemie Neyts felt that there could be no doubt that differentiation worked and would continue to work in future. She saw no contradiction between full respect of the principle of differentiation and the fact that the Commission's report mentioned the option of accepting 10 new Member States in 2004, saying the essential thing was for each candidate country to be judged on its own merits at the end of the negotiation process. At this stage, she concluded, it is too soon to say for certain which countries will be ready by the end of 2002.